ASA dismisses GAME "We Won’t Be Beaten on Trade-ins" complaint

The Advertising Standards Authority has rejected a complaint raised against retailer GAME.

Three complainants had alleged that GAME’s We Won’t Be Beaten on Trade-ins” offer, which promises to beat any rival trade-in offer by 1, was misleading because they reported that when they attempted to take advantage of the offer they were refused as the trade-in prices offered by competitors were considered too low for GAME to make a sufficient profit”.

GAME countered the complaints by saying that there were many instances – for which, incidentally, it could provide evidence – where it had honoured the trade-in deal and made no profit or suffered a loss.

The ASA dismissed the complaints, agreeing with GAME that the refusals to honour the offer that the complainants had encountered were likely to have been isolated events which were not representative of GAME’s commitment to, and application of, the offer more widely”.

Added the ASA: Because GAME had provided evidence which showed a number of cases where Game had honoured the offer even when they made little or no profit, or made a loss, we considered the claim was not misleading and was not in breach of the Code.”